Stephen J. McKinney

Teachers’ continuing professional development: contested concepts, understandings and models

Teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) is being given increasing importance in countries throughout the world. In Scotland, the changing professional and political context has resulted in unprecedented investment in CPD. However, analysis and evaluation of CPD policies, practice and impact is complex. In seeking to understand some of the complexities, this article proposes a triple‐lens framework, drawing on three different accounts of teacher learning. The framework is then used to analyse three specific examples of CPD initiatives. Conclusions point to the need to consider a much wider conception of teacher learning in which socio‐cultural aspects are given due attention.

Pupil participation in Scottish schools: How far have we come?:

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989), which applies to all children under the age of 18, established the overarching principles guiding pupil participation. In most European states, signatories to the Convention have enacted policies to promote the voice of the child or young person in decisions that affect them. In education systems strategies to enhance pupil participation are an increasing feature of deliberation on education for citizenship, curriculum flexibility, pedagogical approaches and assessment for learning. Despite the positive policy context and professional commitment to principles of inclusion, translating policy intentions so that the spirit of the legislation is played out in the day-to-day experiences of pupils is a constant challenge. This article reports on research that examines how pupil participation is understood and enacted in Scottish schools. It considers how the over-laying of diverse policies presents mixed messages to practitioners.

KEY INFORMANTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHER LEARNING IN SCOTLAND

ABSTRACT: This article outlines the policy context for teachers’ learning and continuing professional development in Scotland and considers this in relation to the perspectives of key informants gained through interview. The analysis draws on a triple-lens conceptual framework and points to some interesting contradictions between the policy text and the expressed aspirations of the interviewees. Current policy and the associated structural arrangements are viewed as broadly positive, but interviewees express concerns that an unintended emphasis on contractual arrangements might inhibit the more transformative elements of professional learning.

The Continued Existence of State-Funded Catholics Schools in Scotland.

Catholic schools in Scotland have been fully state-funded since the 1918 Education (Scotland) Act. Under this Act, 369 contemporary Catholic schools are able to retain their distinctive identity and religious education and the teachers have to be approved by the Catholic hierarchy. Similar to the position of other forms of state-funded and partially state-funded faith schools in Europe, the position of state-funded Catholic schools in Scotland has been contested. This paper initially locates the debate and discussion about Catholic schools in Scotland in the history and development of the wider faith schools debate in the UK, particularly England and Wales. The paper outlines the key themes in the debate on faith schooling in England and Wales identifying the similarities between the debate in Scotland and England and Wales and the distinctive features of the debate in Scotland. The paper will then focus on a critical examination and analysis of two key themes concerning state-funded Catholic schools in the Scottish context. The first theme is the debate over the continuation of government funding of Catholic schooling as it is effectively government funding of religious beliefs and practices for a particular Christian denomination. The second theme is more unique to Scotland and has some tenuous links to the debate on faith schools in Northern Ireland: the claims that Catholic schools are the root cause of sectarianism or contribute to sectarianism.

The faith‐based schools debate: challenging assumptions and stereotypes

In the last five years the public and academic debate concerning faith-based schools in England and Wales has intensified. This is exemplified in the coverage in national newspapers, the Times Educational Supplement and in dedicated issues of the Oxford Review of Education (27(4), 2001) and the British Journal of Religious Education (25(2), 2003). This debate has been prompted by a number of key factors including

Jewish education and formation in Glasgow: a case study

This article explores the formational provision within a faith community when faith schooling ends at the primary stage. A case study, part of a larger multi‐faith study, examined the Jewish community in the greater Glasgow area—a small, and shrinking, community with a long history of relatively peaceful integration but increasingly pressurised by secularisation, assimilation and emigration. There is a well‐attended Jewish primary school, but no secondary school. A range of approaches to youth formation and education for children of secondary age has evolved—approaches linked to a variety of conceptions of Jewish identity. The aim, ultimately, is to include all Jewish children, no matter how they construct their Jewish identity, in the community.

From Heaven to Earth: A Comparison of Ideals of ITE Students

This article describes and discusses the outcomes of an open‐ended questionnaire completed by Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students about their personal and professional ideals, that is, ideals they would like to pass on to their pupils, their ideal teacher and ideal school. We compared five groups of students that were formed on the basis of their personal ideals: a religious ideals group, a moral ideals group, a vocational ideals group, a materialistic ideals group and a remainder group. We found that those in the materialistic ideals group were more focused on their own ideal situations, like being married or being happy, than the others and that those in the vocational and moral ideals groups were less focused on these ideals. We also found that the moral and religious ideals groups had comparable personal and professional ideals, whereas the materialistic ideals group was clearly inconsistent. No clear picture emerged as to whether or not the vocational ideals group had distinctive professional ideals.

The Relationship of Child Poverty to School Education.

Child poverty is a global issue that affects around half the children in the world; it is inextricably bound to the poverty experienced by their parents and families and has been identified by the United Nations as a human rights issue. Child poverty can be a barrier to children and young people accessing school education or achieving any form of success through participating in school education. This article examines some of the main issues surrounding child poverty and school education and a number of government interventions designed to enhance the education of disadvantaged children (exemplified in the United Kingdom). The article will argue that some of these interventions have had some success, although they need to be contextualized in the wider educational and political context. The article offers an alternative vision of intervention in schools drawn from research from the United Kingdom, America and Australia.

Catholic schools in Scotland and divisiveness

Faith schools and divisiveness is one of the key issues in the faith school debates in both England and Wales and Scotland. In Scotland the faith school debate is focused on Catholic schools. This paper, based on a review of relevant literature and the findings of a series of expert interviews, argues that the complexity of this issue of the divisiveness of faith schools in Scotland can be best understood through the adoption of six categories of divisiveness. These six categories illuminate the debate and raise important questions about the nature and position of Catholic schools in contemporary Scottish society.

The last place to look: the place of pupil councils within citizen participation in Scottish schools

This article critically examines pupil councils as a means of developing pupils’ citizenship participation. It draws on findings across two research projects. The first study is a mixed method study commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) that reviews the range of participatory activities in Scottish schools and their contribution to Scotland’s major curriculum revision, the Curriculum for Excellence (CFE). The second is a longer ethnographic study examining young people’s experience of participation projects in more detail. The findings lend strength to the argument that pupil councils as a stand-alone approach are not an effective means of citizenship participation. When pupil councils are complemented by other participation activity across spheres of school interaction, young people’s understanding of and interest in participation can be greatly enhanced. The article examines the cross curricular linkages schools are making, the barriers that impede such linkages and the benefits derived from successful coordinated approaches in light of criteria for ‘graduated participation’ developed through decades of work internationally on children’s participation.